Storyline:
In 1865, Timothee, a wanderer, arrives in a village in
southern France pretending he is deaf and mute. There,
he is struck by the beauty of a young woman, Josephine,
and asks for hospitality at the house of Dr Hughes, her
father. At dinner, he makes strange tricks inducing
weird reactions in Josephine. The next day, he comes
back when she is alone and makes her fall in a state of
hypnotic lethargy before taking advantage of her.
Overwhelmed by his powerful hypnotic gift, she follows
him even though she seems to be disgusted and afraid of
him. He takes her deep into the woods and continues to
abuse her until he is arrested and tried. But how did
Josephine accept to follow him?

Review:
Benoit Jacquot directed this offbeat tale of an
unscrupulous man''s hold over a lovely young
women, set in France in the 1860s. Josephine
(Isild Le Besco) is the beautiful but reckless
daughter of the wealthy and well respected
Doctor Hughes (Bernard Rouquette). One day, a
ragged hermit named Timothee (Nahuel Perez
Biscayart) arrives in their village, and
Timothee is immediately taken with Josephine,
while she seems similarly fascinated with him.
Doctor Hughes is intrigued with the strange but
charismatic drifter, and invited him into his
home, where he managed to impress everyone, even
Josephine''s beau Paul (Mathieu Simonet), with
his talent for magic and hypnosis. Doctor Hughes
and Paul change their opinion of Timothee when
he subjects Josephine to a brutal rape, but when
he leaves the village, Josephine opts to leave
with him, and the Doctor wonders if she''s going
of her own free will or if he''s mesmerized her
into doing his bidding. Au Fond Des Bois (aka
Deep In The Woods) was an official selection at
the 2010 BFI London Film Festival.
Mark Deming, Rovi
Well, I didn''t see this one coming. The LFF
guide proclaims that Deep In The Woods echoes
Herzog''s The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser (1972) and
Truffaut''s L''enfant sauvage (1970) - the latter
a particularly interesting case, for its
reported roots in fact. These comparisons
reflect period setting but the film shares a
more recent ancestor. Although it is not
thematically similar, the intensity and deranged
psycho-sexuality of Jacquot''s film recalls Lars
von Trier''s Antichrist (2009).
That film dealt with multiple themes including
grief and gendercide but to a greater extent it
was an essay on misogyny - a dark excursion into
the woods where woman took her revenge for years
of persecution. Believing her gender to be the
root of all evil, She (Charlotte Gainsbourg)
takes control of "Satan''s Garden" (nature) and
performs a series of increasingly violent and
troublesome acts on herself and her husband
(Willem Dafoe). Deep In The Woods is the story
of what happened on the other side of the woods,
two centuries ago, when a dark magician named
Timothée (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) takes control
of a woman named Joséphine (Islid Le Besco) for
his own perverse fantasies. Much like Victor
(Jean-Pierre Cargol) in L''enfant sauvage,
Timothée is primal - as much a part of the earth
as the grass and trees. But he''s also dangerous.
There''s a shade to his eyes that speaks of a
thousand sins, dirt under his nails and a
flicker of his tongue like a snake. The journey
will be one of evil...
The first hour of Deep In The Woods is
sensational. There will be some who cry out that
the film is misogynist - Joséphine, completely
entranced by Timothée''s dark spell, is stripped
and raped several times during the film. She
tries to run away but always comes back to him
and further into the film she seems to find joy
in his sexual assault. She finally sees her
repressed reflection in the troubled soul of
this young animal, and her primal instincts take
over as flesh embraces in a violently erotic
way. A scene in a lake sees her embracing him
with a smile on her face... is she still under a
spell, possessed, or has she been lured to the
dark side? Has this man stripped her of her
identity for his own animalistic will? Has she
become a mere object, both for him and the
audience, to take pleasure in leering at?
Jacquot''s camera spends a lot of time admiring
the fractured state of Joséphine''s naked body -
the lens poring over her flesh - but it is far
from misogynist. There are deeper themes at
work.
The middle third consists of the couples
relationship reaching dangerous heights as they
have sex in the dark woods - one scene sees
Joséphine in control, as she heaves her body
over Timothée in a primitive sexual mass. In a
way this section recalls Nagisa Ôshima''s In The
Realm Of The Senses (Ai no korîda, 1976), but
abandons the blood red interiors of obsession
for a natural foray into instinct and depravity.
Fans of that (much criticized) work will
remember that the relationship between Sada
(Eiko Matsuda) and Ishida (Tatsuya Fuji) began
with an act of violent molestation and rape.
Reportedly based on a true story, that film
explored the intensity of dangerous desire,
culminating in an unforgettable ending. In fact,
put In The Realm Of The Senses, Antichrist and
L''enfant sauvage in a blender, with a little bit
of Possession (Andrzej Zulawski, 1981) and
you''ve got Deep In The Woods. It just falls
apart towards the end.
Jacquot''s direction is perfectly fine, wildly
improving on the observational coldness
(although that was intentional) of last years
Villa Amalia. That film was also scored by Bruno
Coulais (Coraline, Henry Selick, 2009), one of
the most underrated composers working today -
who has created a moody, shrieking and evocative
score for this film. If the film lets itself
down in the final third, the score never does,
and it''s a shame that a soundtrack CD for this
masterwork doesn''t appear to be on the horizon.
The problem is that the film gives up everything
that it was working towards and becomes a
strange drama of morals. Joséphine is rescued
and Timothée sent to prison, but the film spends
too long dwelling on what happened in the woods,
and attempting to add some kind of leverage to
the actions. It all becomes rather muddled and
boring, and what I thought the film was became
the centre of a pointless debate. It feels
almost like an apology when really what the film
needed to do was up the ante and go completely
mad - reveling in the disturbance and sexual
oddness. It''s sad that such a confident film
ends with a whimper and not a scream of rage.
Most divisive of all will be the performances. I
can''t really describe them in words, but Le
Besco is hypnotic. Her brave performance is a
physical and mental one - her body speaking a
thousand words when she can''t, in a state of
possession. Her violently tilted neck, as if it
were broken, and haunted stare into nothingness
are incredibly powerful. It''s unlike anything
else at LFF this year and deserves to be seen by
everyone. Like most films this interesting
however, it probably won''t be. And that''s the
real shame...